Moel Ty Mawr stone circle, with the valley of the Afon Dyfrdwy (River Dee) below

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The route (centre) with the Berwyn Mountains

The route and the main Berwyn Ridge

The route in close up, showing Llandrillo, the stone circle and Moel Pearce

I’ve featured the Berwyns in this blog before – they are remote, wild hills, though nothing like as rough and gnarly as the nearby Rhinogs. Chris and I (plus Border Collie ‘Mist’) had last been out this way in 2016 (see post #204), with another two trips in 2014 (see posts #162 and #163) so a return trip was long overdue – a new camera to try out was the final excuse needed (the image at the start of this post was taken using the new camera).

Setting out near Llandrillo ….

…. and gaining height on a good track

First views looking down on the inversion

The valley of the Afon Dyfrdwy looking north ….

…. and looking west

We had driven into thick mist (not talking about Collie ‘Mist’ this time as she’s far from being thick!) after passing through Ruthin, but I wasn’t dismayed – there was a strong ridge of high pressure across the area, and it was almost certain that we would leave the mist behind as we gained height. Sure enough, as we left the car behind in fog-bound Llandrillo, we popped out into clear conditions, with a great looking inversion below us in the valley of the Afon Dyfrdwy (River Dee).

Below Moel Ty Mawr, about to head uphill

Border Collie ‘Mist’, waiting for the photographer as usual

At the stone circle

The main objective on this trip was the Moel Ty Mawr stone circle, just a couple of kilometres out of Llandrillo. At 11 metres across, and with 41 stones, it isn’t the biggest stone circle in the UK, but the spectacular location overlooking the valley of the Dee makes up for that. The circle is sited on a small plateau at an altitude of 440 metres and has stood there for about 4000 years.

The circle (and dog!) – the original camera in action

Same camera, same dog, slightly different angle

I’m a big fan of Olympus cameras, and still have an old OM2 film camera, but my usual hill camera (used for most of the images in this post) is an Olympus TG-5, a tough, hard-as-nails camera that can be dropped, drowned and frozen and still bounce back. Although essentially a ‘point and shoot’ camera, the TG-5 is a great piece of kit that is capable of producing good quality images whilst surviving a rough day out in the mountains.

The view to the west using the new camera, showing the inversion

I’ve recently bought an Olympus OM-D E-10 Mk2, which is incredibly versatile and sophisticated compared with the TG-5 – you wouldn’t want to drop it in a puddle though! The image above was taken with the new camera and then edited with ‘Affinity’ Photo Editor. I’ve been editing my pics for the blog since the early days, but Affinity is much more powerful than previous editors I’ve used. I’m learning about RAW images and how to get the best out of them, but it’s still work in progress!

Onwards to Moel Pearce ….

…. with the Berwyn Ridge on the skyline

The stone circle made a good place for a lunch stop as well as a photo opportunity, but winter days are short and we didn’t stay too long. The plan was to head a little higher to Moel Pearce before taking a track down to the valley. Moel Pearce is a bit of a round lump of a hill, though it does just top the 600-metre mark, but we did have views of the main Berwyn Ridge in the distance, standing about 200 metres higher.

On the return route to the valley ….

…. with one last look back to the Berwyns

The final images show the return route – we didn’t see a soul all day, from leaving Llandrillo to arriving back. The valley was still fog-bound and gloomy, but the dog and humans had found a spot in the sun, and all I need to do now is to improve my photography so that I can share future trips! ‘Mist’, as usual, wasn’t much impressed with hanging around while I played with my new toy and would have been even less impressed if she had known that we still had a 1½ hour drive home before dinner time!

Llandrillo below in the mist – time to head for home

Text and images © Paul Shorrock